Blog Post Number 2

"Letter to a Daughter at Thirteen" by Barbara Kingsolver is a fantastic essay and truly my favorite piece I have read so far this year. The title already allows the reader to read this letter without feeling intrusive. This letter is dedicated to all daughters, nieces, and teenage girls in general. My mom would never be this cool. My mom is a bit overprotective in the sense that she loves to treat me like a baby. She would never have a lighthearted conversation with me about genitalia, sex, or dating, like Kingsolver does. The craziest part is that she admits the mistakes of her youth. Trust me, my mom isn't a strict, hard-nosed, and firm woman by any means, but she is not one to recall and share unsavory events of her childhood and "teenhood". Kingsolver wrote about her first kiss and how it didn't go as well and wasn't as magical as any girl dreams. She also openly expressed that she was lucky that she wasn't asked to go past kissing. She didn't know if she would have turned it down or not. There is a fear of not being able to say no to guys and an inclination to act unlike yourself around them. I was stunned at the story of her fifth grade daughter coming home and complaining about a boy who would tease her relentlessly with sexual innuendos. Kingsolver tried to teach her daughter to say "No, I hate that, you make me sick, go away." to this bully. Meanwhile, her daughter felt that she needed to be coy or polite in response. It's that fear that a woman should stay sweet, kind, and graceful, no matter what the situation is. There is a common feeling among young women, at first at least, of "I can't say no to boys". I am happy that Kingsolver opened up to her daughter that she understands what adolescence is like and mistakes will probably be made. It is okay. Her daughter is a better thirteen year old, in her mother's eyes, than her mother herself., She also made the comment that "I look forward to meeting the guys you'll date." It is truly refreshing to hear of a mother who is so candid and honest with her fairly young daughter. The below picture is a reference to the stereotypical female and male minds. I can imagine that this is the male mind Barbara Kingsolver's parents' and parents of the seventies pictured, which made them truly apprehensive of their teenagers.